Friday, 1 July 2016

Request: Can you help Quentin?

This morning I was driving to work and came across a man holding up the request below. I stopped and asked him to get in, parked and took him up to our offices, offered him coffee and consulted with him. His name is Quentin, he is unemployed, a street sleeper with some initiative and a sparkle in his eye. He has sketches for clothing designs in koki pen. He also has a brand name which he wants trade marked. He was also darn hungry and we got more biscuits. That was at 8am.

Quentin has no email or street address (in fact he has many). He has his identification number but no id book. He is armed with his koki pen and his drawings, a brand, his personality and a spark but as far as I am aware those are his only assets. No doubt he has an interesting, perhaps shocking and tragic story too. It is difficult to not want to help him turn his ideas and creativity into sustainable income and help alleviate the conditions he finds himself him. Indeed, I think that you will agree, it is our obligation as people, to try to help him do that.

At 9am, I was in a CEO SleepOut Trust meeting helping to update stakeholders partners ahead of the event on the 28th. The CEO SleepOutTM is of course an initiative aimed at raising awareness for the homeless. The timing was entirely co-incidental and obviously fortuitous for both Quentin and those at the meeting. With Quentin's permission he was introduced to the meeting and shared his ideas. Unsurprisingly, there was an immediate interest in assisting him and I am now, at 11am, spreading that call for assistance to you, our readers.

Quentin returns to our offices next Wednesday. He doesn't want handouts, he needs people who can help brings his brands, designs and story to market in the clothing sector. If you feel you can help please email me here.

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Afro-IP was voted top 25 foreign and international legal blogs by LexisNexis, is listed on Managing Intellectual Property's guide to IP blogs worldwide, is listed on IPKat's blogroll, was nominated on Nigerian Law Intellectual Property Watch's guide to African IP resources, was voted in the World's Best IP blogs by BIP Counsels and in 2017 in the Top 100 IP Blogs on the Planet!